Featured Research

from universities, journals, and other organizations

Two catalysts made to work together: May lead to pharmaceuticals with less chemical waste

Date:

July 28, 2010

Source:

Northwestern University

Summary:

Much like two children in the back seat of a car, it can be challenging to get two catalysts to cooperate for the greater good. Now chemists have gotten two catalysts to work together -- something easily done by nature but a difficult thing to do in the laboratory. The findings will allow medicinal chemists to invent new reactions and produce valuable bioactive compounds faster with less impact on the environment.

Share This

Much like two children in the back seat of a car, it can be challenging to get two catalysts to cooperate for the greater good. Now Northwestern University chemists have gotten two catalysts to work together on the same task -- something easily done by nature but a difficult thing to do in the laboratory.

Related Articles

The findings, published by the journal Nature Chemistry, will allow medicinal chemists to invent new reactions and produce valuable bioactive compounds faster with less impact on the environment.

Catalysis is inherently green chemistry. Catalytic reactions typically employ a single molecule (a catalyst) to enhance a reaction or make a reaction possible that wouldn't otherwise be possible. Since a catalyst only needs to be used in very small amounts, the potential to control chemical processes while reducing waste makes catalysis very attractive. The Northwestern team wanted to see if they could turn a good thing -- a single catalyst -- into something even better by employing two catalysts.

"In our new approach, we discovered a pair of catalysts that work cooperatively to produce valuable compounds for biomedical research, which is important given the demand for new pharmaceuticals of all kinds," said senior author Karl A. Scheidt, the Irving M. Klotz Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. "Cooperative catalysis -- using two catalysts instead of just one -- will help us develop important compounds faster and with less waste. It also opens up an exciting new area of catalysis to explore."

Scheidt and his team started with simple stock chemicals and ended up with a number of compounds that are potentially bioactive and similar to each other. In the reaction, catalyst one (a magnesium salt that acts as an electron-deficient "Lewis acid") activates one molecule, and catalyst two (a mimic of thiamine, a carbene and an electron-rich "Lewis base") activates a second molecule simultaneously. The two activated substrates come together. The result is rapid, efficient and controlled production of large amounts of a molecule called gamma-lactam, a key building block for many pharmaceuticals.

On paper, the two catalysts should bind together and not be that effective as catalysts, but, it turns out, they don't interact that tightly. Instead, when there is a substrate for each catalyst, they work in tandem. Before this discovery, no one had identified an electron-deficient metal Lewis acid that works with a carbene. (A carbene is a highly reactive, transient molecule in which a carbon atom has only two bonds versus the normal four.)

"Nature employs a lot of catalysis -- to do such crucial biological transformations as acylations, oxidations and reductions, but it's hard to do what nature does in a flask," said Scheidt, director of Northwestern's Center for Molecular Innovation and Drug Discovery. "Getting two catalysts that are seemingly incompatible to work together is a significant advance. Now we have a great first step to realizing the full potential of this powerful cooperative catalysis strategy. Ultimately, this approach should allow chemists to combine simple components under catalytic conditions to generate new bioactive compounds of high value."

In addition to Scheidt, other authors of the paper are Dustin E. A. Raup, Benoit Cardinal-David and Dane Holte, all from Northwestern.

Northwestern University. "Two catalysts made to work together: May lead to pharmaceuticals with less chemical waste." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 July 2010. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100728092627.htm>.

Northwestern University. (2010, July 28). Two catalysts made to work together: May lead to pharmaceuticals with less chemical waste. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 31, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100728092627.htm

Northwestern University. "Two catalysts made to work together: May lead to pharmaceuticals with less chemical waste." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100728092627.htm (accessed March 31, 2015).

More From ScienceDaily

More Matter & Energy News

Featured Research

Mar. 31, 2015 — Researchers have recorded the first direct observations of the micro-scale mechanisms behind the ability of skin to resist tearing. The results could be applied to the improvement of artificial skin, ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — A year ago, researchers showed that their software endowed the walking robot Hector with a simple form of consciousness. Their new research goes one step further: they have now developed a software ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Landfills can make a profit from all their rotting waste and a new patent explains exactly how to make the most out of the stinky garbage sites. Decomposing trash produces methane, a landfill gas ... full story

Mar. 31, 2015 — Scientists have achieved an unprecedented level of control over defects in liquid crystals that can be engineered for applications in liquid matter photonics. Sitting with a joystick in the comfort ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — Neuroscientists are taking inspiration from natural motor control to design new prosthetic devices that can better replace limb function. Researchers have tested a range of brain-controlled devices ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — Speaking in public is the top fear for many people. Now, researchers have developed an intelligent user interface for 'smart glasses' that gives real-time feedback to the speaker on volume modulation ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — By studying the morphology and physiology of plants with tiny conical "hairs" or microfibers on the surface of their leaves, such as tomatoes, balsam pears and the flowers Berkheya purpea and Lychnis ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — In the first study of its kind, scientists quantitatively show that electric vehicles will meet the daily travel needs of drivers longer than commonly assumed. They found that batteries that have ... full story

Mar. 30, 2015 — One researcher has developed a clever solution to gather naturalistic driving data. For several years, she has been using a detailed driving simulator to study how participants respond to ... full story

Bionic Ants Could Be Tomorrow's Factory Workers

Reuters - Innovations Video Online (Mar. 30, 2015) — Industrious 3D printed bionic ants working together could toil in the factories of the future, says German technology company Festo. The robotic insects cooperate and coordinate their actions and movements to achieve a common aim. Amy Pollock reports.
Video provided by Reuters

Apr. 11, 2013 — Scientists have reported a discovery that could speed an emerging effort to replace ethanol in gasoline with a substantially better fuel additive called butanol, which some experts regard as “the ... full story

Sep. 29, 2011 — Chemists have developed a method to design and test new catalysts, which are substances that speed chemical reactions and are crucial for producing energy, chemicals and industrial products. By using ... full story

Sep. 22, 2010 — Over 80% of all products manufactured today in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries require the use of catalysts. Chemists have now demonstrated a new technique using the enantioselective ... full story

May 9, 2010 — Some people have streets named after them. Warren Piers, a chemistry professor at the University of Calgary, has a catalyst penned after him. And in a new paper, Piers reveals the inner workings of ... full story

ScienceDaily features breaking news and videos about the latest discoveries in health, technology, the environment, and more -- from major news services and leading universities, scientific journals, and research organizations.